The Shortlist | The Collections Award 2024 | Historic Houses x Dreweatts

The Shortlist

Abbotsford, the Home of Sir Walter Scott

Abbotsford is home to the collections of furniture, militaria, art, rare books and antiquarian curiosities amassed by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), one of the most popular writers of the nineteenth century, both on home soil and around the world. The Abbotsford Trust also cares for the property of his descendants who occupied the house and estate, some of whom were collectors and historians in their own right.  The house welcomes the public daily between March 1st and Christmas, and a Visitor Centre exhibition space showcases treasured objects from the Library and stored collections year-round.

Scott was already a famous writer and an antiquarian by the time he purchased Abbotsford and the house interiors were specifically designed to showcase his collections as “a museum for living in”. It is this celebration of objects and their stories that makes Abbotsford unlike any other historic house collection – the house is a theatrical stage set for the objects it contains. Scott used the historical objects around him as writing aids and a number of his possessions make cameo appearances in his historical novels. This is the unique flavour of our collection and what it means to visit a place where history inspired fiction.

Scott’s fascination with objects as springboards for story explains another remarkable feature of Abbotsford’s collections. Although we care for 500 rare books and seven medieval incunabula, and suits of armour grace the walls, the collection is in other ways, very humble. There is a real enthusiasm for smaller items, or ‘gabions’ as Scott liked to call them, particularly those that were portable, pocket-sized and sentimental. Some of his most prized items, from locks of celebrity hair to snuff boxes, quaichs (drinking cups), and even an oatcake crumb found in the pocket of a dead Highlander at Culloden, are displayed in a cabinet of curiosities in the Library to allow for visitors to easily see more of these precious artefacts. Scott was a collector particularly attached to the ideas of individual heroism and the lost voices of the past. Our aim is to tell Scott's stories alongside presenting the curatorial view of an item today.

Today, our Collections team of two facilitate over one hundred separate research and special access requests a year. An innovative MOOC –titled the Man Behind the Monument-,co-delivered by our Curator, has taken over 7000 e-learners to date on a virtual journey through Abbotsford, punctuated by engagement activities relating to its collections. Learners have turned their hand to transcribing Scott’s manuscripts and even writing flash fiction inspired by our collections. A recent exhibition has spotlighted Abbotsford’s treasure trove of 2500 18-century chapbooks, the comic books of their day. This focus on the lively, and sometimes bawdy reading culture of ordinary people rather than the elite, reframes Scott's focus as a writer and researcher in fascinating ways. In 2024, we are busy designing an interactive botanical cabinet for the gardens, the contents directly inspired by our collections and archive.

Burton Constable Hall

Burton Constable's collections capture a wide-ranging insight into the history of this great house, which has belonged to the Constable family for 800 years. The collection contains almost all material types, from fine fabrics and furnishings to unique plans and drawings, amateur sketches and fine art, curiosities and religious artefacts through to wheelchairs, whales and exercise horses. The dates for these items span from the 17th to 21st centuries and capture a unique glimpse of a home which has passed through many branches of the same family all with their own interests. Among the collections are some key items relating to Chippendale, Capability Brown, Lightoler and many other notable designers and craftsmen from the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Burton Constable is host to nationally important, if not internationally important, collections; key among these are the Chippendale collections and William Constable’s Cabinet of Curiosities, one of the finest examples of such collections to survive in its original settings.

Visitors to this beautiful home often remark on the lived-in atmosphere the house has, and on the curious juxtapositions that occur among the displays thanks to the very different artistic, decorative and scientific interests of the current family's predecessors.

The collections feature works by some very key names, with furniture by Atkinson and by Lightoler as well as artworks by Jeanne-Etienne Liotard, George Romney and Pompeo Batoni, and of which have featured internationally in exhibitions. It also however showcases the exquisite amateur artwork and painstaking craftsmanship undertaken by members of the family themselves to create watercolour, sketch and needlework designs showing their beloved houses, landscapes and pets.

William Constable's broad-ranging interests mean that the Hall is full of unique curiosities, from astonishing early electrical equipment and herbarium to unique, locally-made wheelchairs as well as his more luxurious Chippendale suites. Although curiosity collections were very fashionable during the 18th century, Burton Constable's is particularly significant as it is the only to survive in its original country-house setting, with many of the objects still displaying their original 18th century labels which were handwritten by William himself and correlate exactly to letter, vouchers and bills of lading which are still held in the Foundation's extensive archives.

Burton Constable is constantly re-evaluating how we use our collections to best tell their stories, with significant alterations in the Hall's displays lately to exhibit collections in a more day-to-day way and better engage with our visitors. We have also been carrying out significant works to conserve out unique and vast collections of 18th and 19th century music, with this work including a partnership project with the University of Hull to perform and digitise pieces which the family would have collected and played here in the mid-1800s. This music will now be played to our visitors during their visits to the Hall, as well as featuring in new guided tours looking at the Hall's print and music collections.

This is a truly unique collection - that still has the ability to inspire and surprise.

Deene Park

The Tresham-Brudenell library sits in the Bow Room at Deene Park and has recently been given some much needed attention.

Tresham’s library was one of the largest in England of its time and the portion of the library was no doubt a dowry for his youngest daughter, Mary, who married Thomas Brudenell in 1605. 

The 2,000 books consist of the latest works on architecture, mathematics, astronomy and science, Catholic theology and devotion, and a wide range of works on history and literature. The books are written in Greek, Roman, German, French, Spanish, Italian and English.

Deene Park would like to win this award to complement and publicise this important collection.  The care of the collection is paramount and each day new discoveries and interpretations mean that we can open to wider audiences, not just the academics but those whose interest in culture and conservation and has yet to be kindled.

Edmund Brudenell, a member of the Oxburghe Club, commissioned Nicolas Barker with David Quentin in 2006 to write The Library of Thomas Tresham and Thomas Brudenell and itemise the collection. As a result of a careful examination of the library and of a manuscript inventory of the original library, they provided a detailed picture of the library and the circumstances of its creation.

The many academics researching Thomas Tresham, or indeed bibliophiles from all over the world, come to Deene by prior appointment to view the books. The catalogue of nearly 2,000 works shows that Tresham owned the latest works on architecture, mathematics, astronomy and science, Catholic theology and devotion, with a wide range of works on history and literature. Written in Greek, Roman, German, French, Spanish, Italian and English there is interest for particular research.  Sometimes it is for the actual book, its bookplates or the spines that are of interest and not just the literary contents. 

Sir Thomas Tresham (1543 1605) remains best-known for his buildings, Triangular Lodge at Rushton and Lyveden New Bield.  His library was one of the largest in England of its time and it is believed that a portion of the library residing at Deene Park may well have been a dowry from the Tresham family for his youngest daughter, Mary Tresham, who married Thomas Brudenell in 1605.  Proof from a recent Archaeologial Discovery of roundshot in the Park has proved that in 1643 the Roundheads, during the English Civil War arrived at Deene and removed the pictures, furniture and all of the books. Thomas Brudenell fled to Wales before being imprisoned in the Tower of London.  Following his subsequent release from The Tower, Thomas Brudenell was forced to buy back most of the library to his fury, returning his books to their rightful home at Deene Park. 

Still to this day, books from the original library very occasionally appear, when they do, Robert and Charlotte Brudenell buy these books and continue to re-instate the library. Two recent purchases have been Sybilla Oracula 1599 and Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores 1498. The latter from the USA where the bidder at auction was convinced the signature inside was Thomas Jefferson not Brudenell. In his disappointment he kindly sold it to the Brudenells at the price he had paid. 

During Covid, Caroline Bendix, library conservator, spent eight weeks stabilising the collection by completing major repairs to bindings and text blocks, repositioning some of the books for safety and creating bookshoes and textblock supports. There are still many left that need help! Her experience in working with over 500 libraries gives her a breadth of knowledge on which to draw to provide tailored and practical advice. Her development of in-situ library conservation methodologies resulted in her winning the Plowden Medal in 2019.

Caroline repaired the damage to the top of the books that may have been caused by multiple readers attempts to remove it from the shelf by pulling on the top of the spine. Over time the continuous strain had weakened the top of the spine and caused it to detach from the top of the textblock.  The bookshoes created provided support for the textblock (pages) and a piece of board was used to line the shelf and the textblock supports were then stuck onto it. These handmade supports are her innovative and unique creation.

A particular book of note is Sir Edmund Brudenell’s personal Almanack from 1576 entitled  ALMANACK. Ephemerides novae, where he has written on 12th-13th August 1565, Apud Regina Deene. This is the proof that Queen Elizabeth I stayed the night at Deene when she was meant to be staying at Burghley but the Cecil children had smallpox. She was billeted, thankfully only for one night, appropriately at Deene where had grandfather Henry VII had stayed frequently on his way to visit his mother Margaret Beaufort at Collyweston Palace.

In the hope that she might return to Deene, the Great Hall at Deene was rebuilt and greatly augmented but Deene remains the only house beside Fawlsey that she ever stayed in Northamptonshire. In early May Deene is welcoming Tudor Legacies for a weekend of celebration of her visit. We hope very much that this link will open up Deene to newer and younger audiences. 

The new display had the cream-coloured tapes replaced with brown tapes and uniformed the library making it much more discreet. In addition, when Marian Brudenell had placed some of the books sideways to display their fronts with the crests of the Treshams and Brudenells, it was obviously doing damage to the spines and as a compromise, copies of the book-plates were made and placed in their originally locations.